


Of Spiders and Skeletons

by ParadoxicalOutcome



Category: Homestuck, Undertale (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 15:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8806996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxicalOutcome/pseuds/ParadoxicalOutcome
Summary: Frisk, Chara, Asriel, Monster Kid and Sans try out the new Early Access of the new game Sburb, only to find themselves in situations they have always dreaded to be in. Another Medium, where pacifism doesn't do much and the machinations of fate are impossible to change. Thankfully, they have the gods of their world in their assistance. Of course, whether that's actually help is... Debatable.





	

Stab.  
Vriska suddenly found herself unable to move, unable to react, to even acknowledge her surroundings. Even though it was a simple bone stabbed through her chest, and even though it didn't even bleed much, the pain was simply too much for her to bear. Much more than when she got her arm and eye blown apart. Much more than when Aradia threw her into the ground at full force multiple times. More than anything she'd ever experienced.

*You feel your sins crawling on your back.

She looked down at the wound, with great effort from the sheer pain still affecting her. The pain was almost like the wound was burning her from the inside, even though the bone was no longer impaled into her, and even though she had endured more than this. She finally looked at her wound. A simple stab wound, right through her chest, no bigger than a knife. Something felt oddly ironic about this, though she couldn't remember what. But on further inspection, she could see a bit of... Purple? But why, her blood was blue, not purple! But it was there, although faint. If she still didn't relatively have her wits about her, she would chalk it up to hallucinating from the pain, but there wasn't even enough of that to jus-

*You feel your sins weighing on your neck.

Another flash of pain. With a grunt of pain, Vriska was forced onto her knees, and then onto the ground. She didn't understand what was happening, but even though the pain was bad enough, and she could feel her eyes begin to tear up, her brain was inexplicably focused on trying to figure out why this felt so familiar to her. Maybe it's something about Tavros?........ Tavros, oh gog. Poor guy, he didn't even deserve what happened to him. The least she could've done was to at least end her antagonizing of the kid, but she didn't and ended up killing him. And for what, some strange set of laws in a crappy world that wasn't even relevant anymore? Or was she simply a megalovaniac, willing to kill her friend if it meant she'd be on the spotlight? The skeleton was saying something, but she couldn't even focus on him. All she saw through her watered eyes were pools of blue, but she was unable to focus enough to figure out if it was blood or tears. Likely, it was both.

*KARMA coursing through your veins.

As soon as she remembered Tavros, and pain thickened. But through pained sobs, she was starting to piece together what was happening. Somehow, in some way, this pain was connected to what she remembered. If she focused, she might even be able to stop this. But her brain refused to cooperate, opting instead to dig up any scrap of memory she could find in her to both make her feel as awful as possible, and to make the pain even worse. But, the pain was slowly getting better, and with it, her perception of stuff happening around her.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER?! I MEAN, SHE'S GOD TIER, SO IT WOULDN'T REALLY KILL HER ANYWAY, BUT WHAT THE FUCK?"  
"Sans, I told you to STOP her, NOT reduce her to a shivering wreck!"  
"alright guys, I dont really know what happened to her, it's never done that before"  
"Is Anyone Going To Do Something About The Sobbing Troll On The Floor"  
"I am on it!"  
"W41T, C4N 1 H3LP?"  
"Try to see if she responds, I'm going to try healing her like normal if she responds."  
"OK"

Vriska could see a red-glassed face enter her vision. Blurry or not, there was no mistaking Terezi's face, with the glasses and all. Even through her blurry vision, she could see that she looked concerned.

"4R3 YOU OK VR1SK4?"

Vriska gave a small smile, and tried to answer her. Instead of speech, though, Vriska tasted blood and immediately started coughing, forgetting that she was lying almost face-down in a pool of her own blood and tears. In hindsight, it was remarkable how many times this had happened to her throught her life.

"4LR1GHT, VR1SK4, JUST R3L4X. YOULL T4LK 4FT3R YOUR3 NOT 1N 4 POOL OF BLOOD"

So she did as Terezi told, staying still and trying to clear her thoughts from anything bad, to make sure the pain wouldn't suddenly start tearing at her again. She could feel herself wrapped in energy, and, in a few moments, all the pain stopped. Only after a moment, she felt herself being pulled up from her shoulders, and looked to her sides to see Jane and Terezi helping her up her up by her shoulders. She appreciated her friends, maybe even more than the usual. It felt really odd to think that in another timeline, Vriska had betrayed her friends to go up against Bec Noir. It wasn't actually another timeline, but still, that didn't really matter since John's universe-changing punch stopped her from actually making the important part of the decision. The questioned remained, though; what would she do without Terezi?

"Thanks Terezi, I really didn't feel like laying on the floor any longer." Vriska said, in a sarcastic and funny-sounding manner she always spoke in just to tear attention away from what happened, but both to her and to Terezi, her quivering voice was enough to give it away.

"SO, VR1SK4, WH4T JUST H4PP3N3D?" Came the question she was hoping wouldn't. She could practically feel the gaze of the entire four trolls, two monsters and ten humans around her all at once. She rocked her head for an answer, as the moment seemed to stretch to infinity. What was she going to say? 'Nothing much, I just felt my entire lifetime of murder coming crashing down on me for a reason I can't fathom yet'? There was really no answer to the question.

"Oh, you know, nothing much, just that I, uh........ Haven't got injured in so long, I guess I kind of undertim8ed the pain!" She quickly pushed the two to the side to ensure them that she could stand on her own.

"...4LR1GHT THEN!" Terezi turned around, though Vriska was sure she only pretended to actually believe that. Sighing, she turned towards the crowd again, looking at what everyone was doing. Rose, Roxy and Kanaya were talking to the red-eyed girl, obviously a nerdy conversation. The kid with the green eyes and the goat-kid was talking to Jade, John, Jane and Jake only a few steps away from them. Too many J's. Karkat and Dave was looking around the crowd aimlessly like her, and so was the skeleton, in an idle conversation with Dave that looked like neither was thinking too much about. Terezi, of course, hadn't left her side.

Then, she suddenly felt the air getting cold. Her vision got obstructed for a few moments and the sky got darker, almost as if a switch was pulled and the day turned to night. But the sun, or rather, Skaia, was clearly there. Then, she noticed it. No one was moving. No one except for herself and that damn skeleton. "What the h8ll?!" She announced her confusion and turned towards the skeleton, but he didn't even turn around. She then also noticed that, among the crowd, the green-eyed kid was also moving. Well, he wasn't moving, but it was really obvious he wasn't frozen like the rest of them. Also, his eyes had turned weird, with a small green iris and completely black sclera. Before she could question him, though, the skeleton finally talked.

"hey kid, by the way, come see me later, ok? mine's the grey planet." And just like that, everything was back to normal. The warm wind was back, everyone was finally unstuck, and the kid didn't have an ominous eye anymore.

"well everyone, I gotta go back to my planet. cya." She saw the skeleton idly walking away, and to behind a rock formation. Just where did he think he was going? Vriska wasn't about to just let him waltz away after what he just did. She'd show him!!!!!!!! And that kid too! Neither was leaving the planet until she got some definite ans-

...wers. She turned the corner. The skeleton was gone, nowhere to be found........

She silently whispered every single insult she could to the guy as she walked back to the crowd.

* * *

 

It was the middle of the night. Or, at least it would be if they were in a sensible solar system and not in the Medium, which basically had perpetual night or day depending on where you were. Nonetheless, Vriska was here in the land of Bones and Frost, and she didn't plan on going away until she had some answers.

Knock. Knock.

She waited for a few seconds. Was the guy not at home? It would make sense, as really, in SBURB your home is the last place you want to be. You should always be out there searching the planet for treasure or the next gate. But also there was the fact that he called her to his planet. He wouldn't just bail after pulling that time shenanigan to call her here, would he?

"SANS!" A voice echoed out from inside the house. Whoever this was, he sounded like a guy, and he also sounded the complete opposite of the skeleton she saw earlier. Maybe it was a family member? Then again, family members tended to not last long in this game, so maybe it was his sprite?

"SANS! YOU'RE A COUCH AND TWO STEPS AWAY FROM THE DOOR! WHY AREN'T YOU OPENING IT?!"  
"thats still getting off the couch and taking two steps, bro"  
"OH MY GOD SANS!" This guy. This guy. She was sure she'd have punched him in the face if she was in the shoes of whoever that was.

Her guess was confirmed when she was face to face with a blue skeletonsprite. He had a cheery smile and what looked like armor and a scarf. Also he was much taller than the other skeleton, even if you ignore the fact that he was a sprite, and so, floating above the ground.

"WELCOME TROLL! HOW CAN I HELP YOU?" The skeleton spoke, far louder than she was expecting. It was like he was perpetually shouting like Karkat.

"I'm looking for, Sans? I guess????????" You answer, figuring that probably is the name of that skeleton.

"OH." The skeleton said, and then turned back towards the house. "SANS! IT'S ONE OF YOUR TROLL FRIENDS!"

Before she could correct the skeleton that her and Sans certainly weren't friends, he suddenly turned back around and floated out of the way. "COME IN, DON'T STAND THERE OUT IN THE COLD!" Papyrus offered as one of his hands gestured toward the inside. "I'M SURE SANS IS VERY EAGER TO SEE YOU!"

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure he is." Vriska handwaved the fact that one of the main reasons he came here was to extort some answers from Sans, no matter the means, thinking that would've probably be a bad thing to mention to his brother.

Instead, she quickly walked into the house and towards the couch, where, just as she had expected, Sans was laying. The TV was on, apparently to a cooking show with a robot. Vriska questioned how there was signal all the way over from their old world to here, let alone the world being un-destroyed enough for TV shows to still be a thing, before quickly brushing the thought aside and locking her eyes on Sans.

Sans looked up, then at his brother, then back at Vriska, the lazy smile unwavering under Vriska's stern gaze. Then, with a "humph", he shifted to a sitting position on the couch.

"so are you gonna keep staring at me... or what?" Sans said in a hilariously casual tone, sounding like he didn't even get the intent burning in her eyes, which only further frustrated Vriska. "Look, 'Sans', I came here to get some answers. And I swear to gog, if I don't get any answers right now, I'll-"

"hey paps, mind getting us something to eat while we talk?" Sans cut her off, not even bothering to acknowledge her last sentence. In fact, the only movement he had made was his eyes flickering to the TV, then to Vriska, and then to Papyrus.

"CERTAINLY, BROTHER! YOU TWO JUST TALK ABOUT WHATEVER YOU WANT, I'LL GET YOU SOMETHING DELICIOUS TO EAT!" And with that, the sprite rushed into the kitchen, Sans looking at the kitchen door with an amused expression. Or so Vriska thought. It was kind of hard to read the facial expressions of someone when their mouth was stuck in a perpetual smile.

"So. You probably know I know why you came here. To know. Y'know?" Sans asked to Vriska. She ignored the terrible wordplay while trying not to cringe.

"Yes. Now will you please stop playing around? What did you do to me 8ack there? And how can you stop time like that?" Vriska proceeded to ask all of her questions in a barrage, with Sans, as usual, just sitting there, his eyes flickering to the TV and back to Vriska at regular intervals, almost as if he was bored, which was annoying Vriska even more.

After the questions, silence followed. Sans stared at Vriska, and then closed his eyes. "So, about that. I guess I should just get to the point." Sans slowly said.

"Well, you probably know that monsters and humans in our world can do soul magic. Powerful monster souls, at least, powerful by monster standards, can affect human souls directly instead of indirectly attacking them. For example, I can increase pressure on someone.

"At first, that sounds like gravity, right? That's what I thought of when I first discovered my ability, and Paps did too. But unlike my bro, I dug deeper. And found that, that can mean any meaning of 'pressure'... Including emotional pressure.

"The ability to affect people by multiplying the 'pressure' of their past mistakes, the power to literally weigh someone down with their sins... I called it 'Karmic Retribution', or just karma for short. I found that it works best for murderers, for obvious reasons." Sans finished his explanation with a suspiciously specific detail, but then, before Vriska could speak, he started again, much to her displeasure.

"But if it worked on you that well... That means you either are overblowing a small mistake in your past emotionally, or you have some dark secrets lodged up inside that soul of yours. And, I'll be honest, you don't look like the type to do the former." the small glow from his eyes vanished, and he became slightly more upright, seemingly without moving. "So, what is it?" All traces of comedy in his voice were gone as Vriska stared at the empty eyesockets and the unnerving smile of the skeleton, each second going by slower than the other one. As the staredown lasted into half a minute, Vriska noticed she was beginning to sweat and avert eyes from the monstrosity.

Suddenly, two plates were placed in the middle of the stare contest, breaking both their concentration as the plates quickly filled up with freshly-made spaghetti. They both watched as Papyrus poured the sauce over the spaghetti, which was slightly glowing blue, as with all sprite-made food. From experience, Vriska knew that didn't change them from tasting pretty good, and Sans looked like he knew too.

"AND HERE IT IS, MY NEWLY CREATED MASTERPIECE! I THINK THAT YOU TWO WILL ENJOY THIS A LOT!" Papyrus triumphantly said, dissipating any tension that may have been left lingering with his booming goofy voice.

"You know bro, you've gotten much better at cooking ever since you..." Sans seemingly paused for dramatic effect, or maybe for the comedic effect. "...Pasta-way!"

"OH MY GOD SANS!" Papyrus all but shouted in response. Vriska sympathized with the loud skeleton, resisting the urge to facepalm.

"Oh come on you two. I'm just trying to lift my bro's... spirits." And with that, Papyrus was out of the room.

Sans and Vriska were alone again, silently eating spaghetti. Vriska deliberately avoided eye contact with Sans, her eyes really focused on her food instead. At the same time, though, she knew she couldn't just wait there, she had to handwave the discussion.

After a few moments, she found the best way she could think of, and started. "So, Sans, we'll speak a8out the important stuff later. I need time to, you know, gather my memories, and stuff.", she said, while cringing at the fact that this way a very obvious lie. However, Sans acknowledged with a small nod instead of calling her out on it.


End file.
